My experience has been that buyers will only look at the words "Ryzen " and " Radeon RX 580 " and think they will have the same performance as desktop versions . All processors and graphics chips I have seen in laptops have been cut-down/throttled/versions of the mainstream desktop versions. So I would expect to see lots of posts after it gets in full production.

It's a full R7 1700 according to ASUS, and I haven't seen any RX M500 series chips announced so one would assume it is a full RX 580, especially with the 8GB VRAM, though that'd mean this laptop would have a TDP on the order of 300w.

A new Strix Ryzen

Few processors were more anticipated than AMD’s Ryzen series. Based on an all-new Zen microarchitecture, the chips took the market by storm earlier this year and haven’t let up since. Their strong multithreaded performance is prized by power users for providing enough oomph for simultaneous gaming and streaming, or more productive pursuits, like content creation and heavy multitasking.

The jewel of the lineup is the Ryzen 7 CPU, which crams a whopping eight cores onto a single chip. Each core can execute two threads in parallel, yielding a staggering 16 logical processors in the Windows Task Manager. Most desktops can’t compete with that kind of power, let alone laptops.

To be fair, the Strix GL702ZC is practically a desktop under the hood. The top configuration comes with a Ryzen 7 1700 CPU based on the exact same silicon as current desktop parts. Variants of the laptop will also be available with the six-core Ryzen 5 1600 and the quad-core Ryzen 3 1200. Overclocking isn’t supported, though.

Radeon graphics meet FreeSync displays

Ryzen doesn’t waste valuable die area on middling integrated graphics, so we’ve used a discrete solution. AMD’s Radeon RX 580 GPU rides shotgun alongside up to 8GB of dedicated GDDR5 video memory to complete The Red Team duo. There’s enough pixel-pushing muscle to handle the latest games and VR experiences.

"On the GPU side, this notebook is also listed as having a 4GB 65W RX 580 GPU, which is a TDP that is exceptionally low for an RX 580, suggesting that this is a power optimised model with lower than average clock speeds for mobile workloads."

That's just one model, that one has 4GB while ASUS says "up to 8GB" suggesting there may be a full 8GB desktop version at the very top end. Apparently there IS a RX 500M series (although AMD seems to have dropped the mobile moniker) AMD Radeon RX 580 (Laptop) GPU - NotebookCheck.net Tech that performs like a desktop RX 470. Not sure you could call that having enough muscle to handle the latest games and VR experiences though.

IF this new cooling configuration can reduce the heat, ...Asus already has a GX model with a external water cooler, but that's a lot of extra junk to haul around. I would think a external graphics card would be ideal...put the 580 outside...no heat from the card would allow a more aggressive CPU with more cores and of course a REAL 580...not a cut down version.

Well here is a new wrinkle...Asus has a new cooling system for laptops...not sure which models will have this, but I'm fairly certain this model will. The laptop base opens a bit when the lid is raised allowing more air, and air enters through pin holes in the keyboard, side exhaust. CPU and GPU each have radiators. This sounds promising....